September 6, 2016

Coffee Pods

You end up with a poor quality cup of coffee that costs 15 times as much as a cup of instant, and yet, they are apparently now so popular that they are outselling instant.

From my perspective if I was going to buy a machine that only did coffee, I’d buy what I did, a proper coffee machine, and if I was too lazy or too much in a rush (morning before going to work) to use the proper coffee machine, I’d make an instant.

The “convenience” of the pod machines over the proper machine is still less convenient and is more waste and hassle than an instant, and side by side with a proper machine, well, they make crap coffee and cost 10x as much if not more, and are no quicker.

Yet, the fucking things sell…..

I want to leave that there for a moment, and move on to something apparently completely different, Harley Davidson.

Harley used to make bikes, and that was that, and if you wanted different you did it yourself from a bunch of home made or aftermarket parts.

Harley are now on their 9th version of the V twin engine, and sometime after the launch of the Evo (the 7th engine) and by the launch of the Twin Cam (the 8th engine) someone somewhere in HD came up with the idea of stage kits….

… and it is pure marketing genius, sell someone a bike that is not all that it could be, and then sell them the extras to make it all that it could be…

like the pods, it’s not about making coffee, it’s about making money.

Making money is the main reason the 9th HD engine, the Milwaukee-8 (4 valves per cylinder) and transmission etc is not backwards compatible with anything else, up until now there were always bits and pieces from one engine series that could be fitted to a bike from a different engine series, sometime quite major parts like heads, but, no more.

The fanbois are out in force proclaiming the M8 to be the smoothest and best thing since sliced bread, forgetting the simple fact that if anyone wanted that they could save a wad of cash, buy a fucking gold wing, stick some harley stickers on it, and ride away into the sunset.

And of course alongside the new M8 product line you can *already* buy the fucking stage kits for it.

For a 14 year old used bike my own current HD is one expensive bike in terms of what it would cost to buy, compared to any other 14 year old used bike (the lack of depreciation is one of the good points) but as an HD owner who has been riding HD on and off for 30 years, it’s 2002 going on 1970 technology and refinement and performance wise.

For *me* I happen to *like* that and I call it “character” a 1.7 litre V twin engine that produces a paltry 45 BHP / litre at the back wheel but which also produces 100 ft/lb or torque at 3,000 RPM, and which shakes and pulses and thunders down the road, getting an appalling 40/45 miles per imperial gallon… but… it will do that till the cows come home

I could get into my peugot diesel powered volvo estate car and get better mileage, carry 4 people and luggage, drink coffee and smoke while travelling, and the volvo is worth less than a dealer fitted stage 1 kit.

Fact is I’ll be honest with you, I use the volvo far more than I use the harley, but the thing HD forgot was summeed up in an advert they did 40 years ago, it was dead simple, it had a picture of a Harley and a caption that said;

“If you want all the comforts of home, stay there!”

In short, the kind of people that HD were telling to fuck off 40 years ago are the type of people they are now marketing to, and the type of people they marketed to 40 years ago, they are now telling to fuck off.

To put this in perspective……….

it’s like Marlboro telling cowboys and toolpushers and truck drivers to fuck off, and marketing the brand exclusively to fag hipster transexuals looking for their next cock to suck.

The world is shifting on its axis and quite clearly anyone is going to market anything to anyone who might buy it, fuck the actual product or history of it, barbie dolls to 5 year old boys, go for it…

Of course this does not just apply to iconic american motorcycles and coffee, it also applies to thinks like democracy and family and politics and news and indeed “truth”.

It must be marketed, and the image must be crafted to match the marketing push.

So the new M8 engine has an engine counterbalancer that swings in between the flywheels contra-rotating against the crankshaft, one mistake and you have two lumps of metal flying into hard contact with one another and total engine destruction, and the oil bag has been moved under the gearbox to allow an air gap behind the rear cylinder.

It may well be that engough design work and expertise has been expended that neither of these things will ever be a problem in real life, however they both violate basic engineering principles…

… and that is my main issue, the violation of basic principles for some other purpose that should always have been a distant subsidiary, not ever a prime mover.

And that is a classic description of what we see all around us everywhere, by all means come to the country, if you have a job waiting for you that will provide you with enough income to be a self sufficient member of society.

By all means breed and have children, if you have sufficient resources to house and feed them.

By all means enter into an economic relationship with Erewhon, provided you don’t expect anyone else to lift a finger to make it mutually profitable.

What the HD experience has taught me is one thing, the only market left is the relatively young relatively conformist gullible crowd who will readily believe anything they are told, just so long as it supports their delusions du jour.

When they have been exploited up the wazzoo that’s it, there are no more consumers left in the pot, and none of these assholes have a way of surviving until the next generation comes on stream, because the next generation are as much use as tits on a bull and will never generate any discretionary income to speak of.

It’ll be guvvmint prints vouchers and hands them to kids, kids hand vouchers to vendors in exchange for tat, vendors redeem vouchers with guvvmint, and before you know it vendors and guvvmint are one and the same, and we are back to soviet era toothbrush factories.

Of innovation and engineering, there will be none.

Brave New World my ass….

Obummer staring down Putin in a shot that just happens to be framed perfectly for the camera, in *exactly* the same way ulk Hogan and Macho Man would stare daggers at each other and the beginning of a pre-arranged WWF bout, before doing the planned number of rounds before the planned outcome, cash the cheques, go home and fuck each other’s wives. then cry about it when some fag outs them for it.

Marketing…. Propaganda by any other name.

That and 75 bucks will buy you a Tassimo, and a buck a pop for the pods.

I’ll stick to my trade 750 g tins of instant and bags of roasted beans for the gaggia.